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Updated: Jun 17, 2026

Fabrication and Testing of Microfluidic Optomechanical Oscillators
Published on: May 29, 2014
Modeling dispersive coupling and losses of localized optical and mechanical modes in optomechanical crystals
Matt Eichenfield1, Jasper Chan, Amir H Safavi-Naeini
1Thomas J Watson, Sr, Laboratory of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA. opainter@caltech.edu
Abstract:
Periodically structured materials can sustain both optical and mechanical excitations which are tailored by the geometry. Here we analyze the properties of dispersively coupled planar photonic and phononic crystals: optomechanical crystals. In particular, the properties of co-resonant optical and mechanical cavities in quasi-1D (patterned nanobeam) and quasi-2D (patterned membrane) geometries are studied. It is shown that the mechanical Q and optomechanical coupling in these structures can vary by many orders of magnitude with modest changes in geometry. An intuitive picture is developed based upon a perturbation theory for shifting material boundaries that allows the optomechanical properties to be designed and optimized. Several designs are presented with mechanical frequency approximately 1-10 GHz, optical Q-factor Qo > 107, motional masses meff approximately 100 femtograms, optomechanical coupling length LOM < 5 microm, and clampinig losses that are exponentially suppressed with increasing number of phononic crystal periods (radiation-limited mechanical Q-factor Qm > 107 for total device size less than 30 microm).
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